ARTICLES ABOUT RECREATION CENTERS BY DATE - PAGE 3

Four Baltimore recreation centers will shut down for good at the end of the summer as part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's strategy to target limited funds to improve some centers while closing others, officials said Tuesday. The four centers, all in West Baltimore, are slated to close at the conclusion of their summer programs in late August. They are Crispus Attucks in Madison Park, Parkview, which is south of Druid Hill Park, and Central Rosemont and Harlem Park, which are in the neighborhoods after which they are named.

Funding for the Department of Recreation and Parks was a hot issue at City Hall on Wednesday - with the City Council president suggesting that police and other agencies transfer money to youth programs, an activist criticizing a proposal to hire a driver for the department and a councilman re-emphasizing the need for an audit of its books. Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young took the unusual step of suggesting at a public meeting that major city agencies, such as the Police Department, transfer 1 percent of their funds to the struggling department.

No matter how many articles are printed about the problems faced by the youth of Baltimore, they always seem to get pushed to the back burner ("Occupy right to question youth jail plan," Jan. 23). Gov.Martin O'Malley's plans to build a juvenile jail need to be pushed out the window. Instead of using millions of dollars to design jails for youth, take a couple hundred thousand and open recreation centers. Why? Because they work! Growing up in West Baltimore, Liberty Recreation on Maine Avenue was a second home to me. I played on basketball teams, played ping pong, shot pool, and did arts and crafts.

Kudos to City Council President Jack Young for admitting that there are "so many other important programs and services which lack much needed support in the city" than the Baltimore Grand Prix ("Young urges mayor to end Grand Prix," Jan. 12). The city can start with the recreation centers that supply a safe haven for learning and recreational activities for our vulnerable youth. Youngsters need these outlets and exposure to better things than hanging out on the corners. The centers are supported by their communities, their schools, churches and local families.

City officials are preparing to award contracts to three private groups to run recreation centers this week, following a string of delays, and have vowed to keep all of the city's centers open through June. Under a deal before the city Board of Estimates, four centers — Brooklyn O'Malley in South Baltimore, Easterwood and Lillian Jones in West Baltimore, and Collington Square in East Baltimore — would be handed over to private groups. A spokeswoman for the recreation and parks department said Monday that all city rec centers would maintain their current activities through the end of the fiscal year, a reversal of previous statements by city officials.

The Sun's editorial last week called the Baltimore Grand Prix's finances "A grand mess" (Dec. 7). It certainly was that, but there is no reason Baltimore Racing Development should be able to leave the city holding the bag for expenses they had not considered or accounted for! The city has its own share of problems. Some of the recreation centers had to close, and there are not enough beds for the homeless. That is where the city money should be spent - not to bail out BRD. Anne Hackney

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is getting a lesson in one of the major downsides of privatizing government services: When you ask outside groups to take over something the city has always done, their agendas won't always be the same as yours. That's what's happening with the mayor's plan to privatize some of Baltimore's recreation centers. One of the nonprofits that is bidding to take over two centers would provide programs not just for the kids that have traditionally been the rec centers' focus but also ex-criminal offenders and psychiatric patients.

Baltimore officials have missed a self-appointed deadline to issue a new request for groups to take over the city's recreation centers, the latest twist in the city's struggle to hand over the centers to private groups. Recreation and Parks director Gregory Bayor issued an open letter last week, saying that the city would release a second request Monday for proposals to take over the centers. Only seven bidders had responded to a previous request in August, fewer than officials had hoped.

Howard County offices, courts, recreation centers and the animal shelter will be closed on Thanksgiving, and the day after. All county facilities will reopen at regular business hours on Monday, Nov. 28. No trash or recycling pickup services will be offered on Thanksgiving. Normal Thursday service will move to Friday, and for residents whose regular pickup is Friday, service is scheduled for Saturday. The landfill will reopen Friday. Parking meters are free on Thanksgiving, but all parking regulations and fees will be in effect Friday.

Eleventh-hour pledges for the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display have taken fundraising more than halfway to the $75,000 minimum needed to stage the Inner Harbor spectacle next month, organizers said Thursday. "With what we have pledged now, we're comfortable with signing contracts for the barges and the tugboats and putting some of the other elements in place," Bill Gilmore, executive director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, said Thursday. "We'll wait and see exactly how much comes in before we order the fireworks shells.